stephenson



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

J. STEPHENSON. GAR TRUCK BRAKE.

,298. Patented May 14, 1889.

uw ww @6mm (No Modem l 2 sheets-sheen 2.

J. STEPHBNSON.

GAR TRUGK BRAKE Nal/103,298.

Patented May 14, 1889.

.N .ANN

wif f WMM UNITED STATES vPATENT OFFICE.

JOHN STEPHENSON, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

CAR-TRUCK BRAKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,298, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed July 20, 1888. Serial No. 280,509. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN SrEPHENsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oar-Truek-Vheel Brakes, of which the following is a full, clear, and eXact specification.

Tram-cars usually have their wheel-brake shoes pendent to the car-body and above the plane of the springs. This, although best as cars are ordinarily constructed, has disadvantages, because as the wheel center and circumference remain always equidistant above the rails the contacting sole of the shoe is subject to change as the vertical motion of the car-body varies with its changeable load; therefore it becomes necessary to remove the inactive shoe remote from the wheel to prevent undesirable contact of wheel and shoe. In order to obviate these objections I construct and arrange the parts as will be hereinafter fully described, and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure lis a plan of a car-truck and attachments illustrating my improvements. Fig. 2 is asectional elevation on the line 2 2, Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a detached section on the line 3 3, Fig. l. Fig. 4 is an edge view of one of the wheels, showing the box-sill and support for the latter. Fig. 5 is a detached view showing the connection between the brake-shoe and its operating-bar.

A tram or cable car with the truck-frame suspended by the axle-box shells, as this, has among its advantages the possibility of using a wheel-brake that is free from detriments referred to an d possessing more power, quickness, readiness of adjustment, durability, and facility for repairs.

The truck-frame is carried by its sills 5 5, attached to pendants 4, integral to the axlebox shells 3, as shown in Fig. 4, and these sills are the chief supports of the mechanism of the wheel-brake, as also of the track-brake, (not shown,) which is housed immediately under the wheel-brake. Assuming that a proper car-truck exists, the following is a satisfactorymethod of constructing my improved car-wheel brake: The wheel-brake shoe 30 may be of usual form with eye 3l and socket adapted to receive the hook with its shoulders embedded to be iiush with the side face of the shoe. The shoe-sliding bar has at its head a hook, 50, with` peculiar shoulders adapted to be indented into the slice-back flush with the side face of the brake-shoe and the hook iitted for passing beyond the shoulder-sockets and through the remaining thickness of the shoe and beyond the shoe sufficiently to receivea vertical pin or key, 5l, or other known safety-lock.

rlhe shoe-sliding bars carry each one shoe located at the head of the bar, and at a short distance from the shoe the bar rests on a cross-timber, 9, of the truck, permitting free end motion through a box-guide, 34, and another keeper, 35, secured to the truck-sill guides the tail of the shoe-bar. Each slicesliding bar has near its head a lug, 36, receivingone end of an extensible bar, 38, adjustable in length by a turn-buckle, 32, and the other end of the bar is jointed to an arm of a rock-shaft, 37. On the opposite side of the rock-shaft is a second arm connected with another extensible bar, lug, shoe-bar, and shoe. A third arm, 39, on the rock-shaft holds the end of a connecting-rod, 40, with its farther end jointed to one of three arms, 4l 42 43, on a rock-shaft, 44, attached beneath the cariioor. One arm, 42, on this floor rock-shaft has a rod, 45, connected with alever or handle, 4G, adapted to transmit the energy of the operator through the handle, rod, shaft 44, parallel rods, truck rock-shafts, bars 32,1ug-shoe bars, and shoes to the ear-wheels at one side of the car, and for the other side a similar combination of mechanism is actuated from the third arm, 43, of the floor rock-shaft, through a second parallel rod, 40, which connects with an arm of the truck rock-shaft and its connection with the brake-shoes at that n side, thus completingV the two sides of the brake system adapted to transmit the energy of the operator to the four wheels of the two sides of the car. To secure the recoil of the brake, the third arm, 39, of each truck roekshaft has connection with the end of a recoilrod, 48, onwhich is a series of spiral springs, 49, with one end ofthe spring abutting a shoulder or enlargement of the rod-guide through which the rod travels back and forth. Thus, when brakes are applied, the springs are compressed, and when the operator ceases his energy the springs recoil and the brake mechanism is readj usted and the shoes removed from the wheels.

The followii'ig elements areiucluded in the roov combination forming the substantially-complete mechanism of the brake in addition to the car-truck and to the car-bottom, which holds the iioor rock-shaft and the operators lever or handle; four brake-shoes, four shoebars, eight shoe-bar guides, i'our articulated :uljustable (connecting) bars, two truck rockshaits, one iioor rock-shaft, two recoil-rods with springs adjustable, two parallel rods connecting iloor and truck rock-shaft, one opcrators lever or handle, and one operators connecting-rod.

l do not here claim the construction of the l truck-frame, as the same constitutes the subject oi a separa-te application forLetters'Patent, Seria-l No. 280,508.

l claiml. A car-wheel brake with four shoes constructed to be slipped sidewise on tour tenons ot' four slide-bars, supported by four crossrails ci. a truck, with four wheels on two axles, having four journals outside of the four wheels, with i'our axle-boxes having four pendent l i mbs, to which are connected the four corners oi' the car-truck, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. A car-brake shoe having a lug at one side of the center oi' the back, provided with a polygonal mortise and adapted to lit a laterally-extended polygonal tenori at the end el the brake-shoe bar, and having a fastening device to retain the shoe in an invariable vertical position, substantially as described.

A wheel-brake shoe with a transverse mortise or eye in part of its thickness, and a recess in the remaining part of its thickness, the mortise and recess adapted to the tenon and shoulder of a brake-shoe bar to hold the shoe perpendicular in its movements to and from the car-wheel, substantially as and for the purpose described.

l. A wheel-brake-shoe bar with part of its head forming a shoulder zi'gainst which the brake-shoe rests, and another part extended to form a tenen adapted to occupy a correspondingly-shaped mortise in the brake-shoe, whereby the combination of the shoulder with the tenon is adapted to maintain the brake-shoe in a vertical position when moved to and from the car-wheel, substantially as described.

5. A car-wheel brake having a slide shoebar, with a lug fitted to receive the end of an extensible bar connected with an arm of the truck rock-shaft, substantially as and for the purpose described.

G. A car-wheel-brake-shoe bar resting on a section of a cross-bar between the wheel-faces, and carrying a shoe at the head of the bar, with the tail oi the bar free to slide through a keeper secured to the inner side of the truck-sill, substantially as and for the purpose described.

7. A carvheel brake with its shoe-sliding bar in a guide-box on the truck cross-rail and the end otsaid bar in a guide secured to the truck-sill, substantially as and for the purpose described.

S. A car-wheel-brake rock-shaft with ends journaled to the sills and sub-sills sustained below the axles and pedestals by pendants integral with the axle-box shells, each rock-shafthaving an arm with articulated rod adapted to transmit the energy of the operator to the brake mechanism, substantially as and for the purpc se described.

9. A car-truck with itsfour corners carried by four integral pendants of four axle-boxes on four journalsof two axles having on them. four wheels, the sills and sub-sills oi thctruck sustaining the bearings el iour journals oii two rock-shafts, with their arms and connecting-rods adapted to communicate the energy of the operator to move the i'our intake-shoes to and from the four car-wheels oi the truck, substantially as shown and described.

l0. A car-wheel brake having at each. side of the car-truck an arm on opposite sides oi a rock-shaft, each arm having an artici'llated bar capable o'l expansion andcontraction lengthwise between the arm and the lug oi the sliding shoe-bar, which, with its shoe, is borne by a cross-rail of the truck, substantially as and for the purpose described.

ll. A car-wheel-brake mechanism carried by a truck borne by its 'four corners beneath four pendants integral to four axle-box shells on four axle-journals oi two car-axles with four wheels, the two truck rock-shafts having four arms connected by :tour articulated adjustable rods with four lugs onV :t'our sliding bars resting on i'our cross-bars of the truck and carrying four brake-shoes adapted to be moved horizontally to and from the wheels by the energy of the operator transmitted through a floor rock-shaft secured to the carbody beneath its iloor, and an arm on each end ofthe door rock-shaft having rod-connections with the rock-shaft at each side of the truck, substantially as and for the purpose described.

l2. A wheel-brake rock-shaft arm holding a recoil-rod on which is a spring adapted to retract the brake, substantially as and for the purpose described.

13. A car-wlreel-brake mechanism composed of brake-shoes, shoe-bars supporting the same, guides for said bars, articulated bars direct-ly or indirectly connecting the shoes to the rock.- sha'fts, recoil-rods connected to retract the brake, parallel rods connecting the fioor and truck rock-shafts, and an operators lever-handle connected with the rock-shaft by an operators energy-transm ittin g rod, all arran ged to operate substantially as and for the purpose described.

ln testimony whereof l have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN ["lElllENSON.

\Vitnesses:

STUART A. S'rnrnnNsoN, (THM-tens E. Fosrnn.

IOO

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